Spa City police officer exposed to LSD

For the second time in less than five years, a Saratoga Springs police officer was exposed to the drug LSD while on the job.

At around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to a report of a suspicious male standing on the porch of a neighbor’s house on Stratton Street. Officers said they identified the man as Dominic Martin, 27, of West Circular Street, Saratoga Springs.

During the investigation, police officers allegedly found Martin in possession of LSD. “During the call, one of our patrol officers came in contact with the drug, which can be inherently dangerous in and of itself,” a police statement released Friday stated. “At this point, the officer has had no ill effects to the exposure and remains on full-duty status.”

It wasn’t clear what form of LSD the officer came into contact with. Martin was charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.

In August 2009, Saratoga Springs Investigator Richard Arpei was exposed to liquid LSD while apprehending a subject. He was subsequently honored with the department’s Drug Buster Award.

11 Responses

Am I missing something here? The exposure was serious enough that they felt the need to do a press release on it, but it wasn’t serious enough for them to think, even for a second, that the exposed officer shouldn’t be walking around the streets with a loaded gun? It doesn’t make any sense.

Oh, I get it Erik. I just wish people with the access would start calling out some of this nonsense.

You’ve got a Mayor who was overly concerned about guns in our city, who had to have read this, but had no safety concerns about a person exposed to LSD having a gun.

We’ve got a Finance Comissioner, who just wrote about how they have to be concerned about what’s best for the finance’s of our city (regarding the Casino), who had to have read this release, and seemed to have no reaction to what the SSPD issuing a statement that they allowed an employee, having been exposed to LSD, to keep their weapon and stay on the job might do to our insurance premiums, or what financial ramifications in the next inevitable lawsuit against the SSPD for misconduct.

Finally, and best of all, you’ve got the Commissioner of Public Safety, who’s department issued this press release. That Commissioner, another supporter of the protests at the gun show, seemed to have no reaction to the his department sanctioning the use of a firearm by a person who’d been exposed to LSD. I guess he figured Caroline Street was already so “toxic”, his boys might as well join the party.

With media usually publishing whatever is interesting this story has gone to court and charges were dropped. The accused is diabetic and has low sugar occasions. Glucose test strips are not LSD… Guilty until the media says different….

Paul
With your background in public safety, surely you can read between the lines in this case.
A patrolman, exposed to LSD, gets the report entered into his file, and later on it becomes a reason for some time off, or a future lawsuit against the city taxpayers.
Police personnel have recently left the ranks with nice settlements, and this could be another one.

Wow! Thanks for the follow up, Jim. Doesn’t surprise me at all to hear that this was another “Chicken Little” case from the SSPD. It would be great if the press started sticking with these big arrest stories. The gap between arrests and convictions in this town is massive. The amount of cases that are thrown out, just like that, would blow you away too.